1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to effectively coupling a computer user to multi-media data. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method to determine a value of selected subsets of multi-media based on a user's subjective preferences.
2. Related Materials and Definitions
This application is related to the following co-pending applications which are hereby incorporated by reference:
UNIVERSAL TAG IDENTIFIER ARCHITECTURE (application Ser. No. 07/963,885), PA1 METHOD FOR GENERATING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN OBJECTS IN A COMPUTER NETWORK (GRINDING), Ser. No. 08/262,999, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,608,900 PA1 FACILITY FOR THE STORAGE AND MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION OBJECTS (NOUMENA SERVER), Ser. No. 08/,263,146, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,790 PA1 METHOD FOR THE ASSOCIATION OF HETEROGENEOUS INFORMATION, Ser. No. 08/262,838 pending, PA1 FACILITY FOR THE STORAGE AND MANAGEMENT OF CONNECTIONS (CONNECTION SERVER) Ser. No. 08/267,022 pending and PA1 METHOD FOR STORING AND RETRIEVING HETEROGENEOUS CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS Ser. No. 08/263,379 pending.
The following definitions may be helpful to the understanding of the terminology as cited throughout the above related materials. This terminology may be used throughout the background, specification and claims of the present invention:
Tags: Tags are globally unique identifiers. Tags are sequentially numbered identifiers identifying data objects (i.e. video, text, audio, observations, opinions, etc.)
Phenomena: The logical structure of the system begins with a unit of human perception, the "phenomena". In the universe of a computer system, "Phenomena" is defined as a representation of phenomena which exist in the universe of human experience Phenomena can be ideas, written matter, video, computer data, etc. Examples include viewing a computer file using a word processor, watching a digital video clip or listening to a digital audio segment.
Connections: That which gathers (or links) Phenomena into interrelated collections. Connections are that which lead the user from one Phenomena to another Phenomena. Connections are not simply a road-map from a Phenomena to all other Phenomena. More specifically, Connections represent an observation of related Phenomena made by human or by computer observers.
Connection Attributes: In the logical structure of the system, "Connection Attributes" allow the entire network of Phenomena and Connections to become usable to each user of the system. Connection Attributes store the rationale behind each connection. In fairly generic terms, Connection Attributes describe the Who, What, Where, When and Why of a particular observation.
Noumena: Another concept in the logical structure of the system is "Noumena". Noumena are that which lie beyond the realm of human perception. In computer-based systems, such as the instant invention, they are the computer stored data, examples are "computer files" or datasets". When these computer files, the Noumena, are observed in their "raw" form, they do not resemble pictures, sounds, nor words. These Noumena resemble a series of bits, bytes, or numbers. These computer files must be manipulated by computer programs, "Phenominated", to become as they appear to the observer. In the present system, Noumena are all of the generic format computer files needed to produce a representation of a Phenomena. This includes the computer data files as well as the computer program files.
Grinding: Grinding is a systematic, computer-based observation of Phenomena. This is typically done with a "narrow view". The programs are usually looking for well defined criteria. When Phenomena are observed by the computer programs, the programs make Connections between the observed Phenomena and other Phenomena known by the programs. In effect, acting as a human observer would when viewing a Phenomena and manually Connection it to other Phenomena.
Persona: to determine the value of information based on each user's subjective preferences.
Capture: During knowledge capture, the human or computer observer Connects two Phenomena and provides the rationale for the Connection by supplying Connection Attributes. The user can also Connect a new Phenomena to previously existing Phenomena.
Retrieve: During knowledge retrieval, an observer navigates from Phenomena to Phenomena via Connections. Knowledge is delivered by experiencing the reconstituted Phenomena. Which knowledge is delivered is controlled by the Connections and the assessment of the Connection Attributes, preferably under the auspices of a Persona.
The present invention supports the overall system of co-pending application "Method for Association of Heterogeneous Information" It supports the Tag Architecture, Connection Server, Grinding, Noumena Server and the design and infrastructure of the overall system, but is not limited thereto. The term "Phenomena" could be read "object", and the term "Connection" could be read "link" in this disclosure. The distinction between Noumena and Phenomena is made to distinguish between objects as experienced by users (Phenomena) and objects as they are actually stored (Noumena).